"If there is an app for that"

Noodles Now:Mars Needs Noodles is a Fast-Paced Fun Ride

September 23, 2019 by RSS Feed

Reviewed by Jimbo

Noodles Now:Mars Needs Noodles is a terrific new game that’s very addictive, fast paced and a total thrill to play.

Targeted at gamers of all levels, Noodles Now:Mars Needs Noodles challenges you to make your noodle deliveries as quickly as possible while navigating various obstacles.

Features:

If you enjoy endless running games such as Subway Surfers or any of the Temple Run games, you’re sure to dig Noodles Now:Mars Needs Noodles, a “delivery game” from Golden Monkey Media, LLC.

To be clear it’s not an endless runner, it’s much more fun that that. The developers call it a “mission-based runner” or a “delivery game”. We couldn’t agree more that it’s an important distinction.

Endless runners can get endlessly boring but this game looks to have much more play life to it due to the strategies and moves that you just don’t find in ER games.

Noodles Now uses a small command area (to the left or right of your avatar) with simple finger gestures to control your direction, making it very easy to get comfortable with the game.

When you start the game you’ll be in Academy Dome. As described, this is home to “Noodle University: the preeminent institution of noodle delivery instruction.” Basically it’s a tutorial mode using a simple setup to get you accustomed to the game. After the first five missions you’ll be a noodle delivery pro.

The strategy of the game is pretty straightforward. The goal is to collect tips so it’s all about making as many deliveries as you can, as quickly as you can, so the noodle buyers, your customers, are happy and give you tips.

The awesome soundtrack adds an upbeat fun touch to the fast-paced gameplay, spot-on graphics and responsive UI.

Appearance and Layout:

A key to the enjoyment of Noodles Now is the way the developers have laid out the game so you have to keep focused on the situation without being overwhelmed with control options or a frustrating and lagging control mechanism.

Noodles Now:Mars Needs Noodles iPhone Game

There’s nothing worse than knowing what to do, doing it, but then the game just doesn’t respond as it should and you get screwed up. That won’t happen here.

The controls accommodate either “handed” players, are perfectly responsive, and give you everything you need to keep up as the game gets more and more challenging, but doable, as you advance to more difficult missions.

Value:

As listed above, Noodles Now is free through the App Store. You can jumpstart your customizations and level by purchasing coins for $0.99 (1,000), $2.99 (4,000), or $4.99 (10,000). We like these options as they’re not really necessary and there are many games out today that are much pricier.

Overall, Noodles Now:Mars Needs Noodles is highly recommended as it delivers a very entertaining fast-paced fun game that is a welcome change from your typical endless runner.

Noodles Now:Mars Needs Noodles requires iOS 12.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

TheiPhoneAppReview’s rating:

Source link:https://www.theiphoneappreview.com/2019/09/noodles-now-iphone-game-review/

SOTKA is a Great Way to Start Your Fitness Journey

September 20, 2019 by RSS Feed

Reviewed by Jimbo

If you’re looking for a simple fitness app that will help track your progress without a clunky interface and complicated settings, SOTKA: fitness for beginners for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch is worth checking out.

SOTKA is a great way to start getting into shape. It offers easy to follow workout guidance and tracking features with an intuitive interface that lets you can focus on your workout.

Concept and Functionality:

After reviewing and using many fitness apps over the years we know how important it is for them to be simple and efficient so they don’t take away from your workout experience.

The last thing you want to do when you hit the gym or before a run is fiddle with your iPhone for 5 minutes trying to navigate a flashy interface and fancy tidbits.

Once the initial setup is complete, you can begin using SOTKA, by Anton Kuchumov, immediately.

The app gives you some important information as background but then you jump right into your training.

We appreciate the clean Apple Watch interface that gives you key information at a glance and let’s you easily control the app.

While using an Apple Watch is certainly not required, it does make it very simple to follow the cadence of the workout, which is one of the important aspects of the regime.

The well-designed watch interface makes it very easy to move along in your workout to achieve the best results.

Features:

SOTKA iPhone app

They key thing about SOTKA is the fact that you can easily get going into a well designed 100 day training program. This is the whole purpose of the app and the devs have made in incredibly easy to get started.

Guidance and rationale are provided to you by selecting the BASIC level training plan. The first information presented is the importance of warming up and cooling down. Good advice.

You tap one of three buttons on the bottom; Train, Stretch, or Rest depending on where you are in the program.

The BASIC level training plan gives you an overview of the program and you are told about the 3 main principles that are designed to keep you on the right track.

The Quality Rule which highlights the importance of correct form, the Quantity Rule which points out how consistency in reps is key to your progress, and the Time Rule which emphasizes the rest you must take in between circles.

By following the three rules of SOTKA you wind up with an individualized fitness program that is perfect for you.

SOTKA also syncs your workout sessions so you can easily access them at a later time.

Each day you can access a different info post which is great to keep you motivated. You can also keep a diary and track your progress with the results of your workouts as well as photos that show your improvement.

A couple of UI items that need to be cleaned up are that you’re asked to “sing up” instead of “sign up” and the words in the graphic on the main screen are in Russian.

Value:

SOTKA is available to download from the App Store for free and is designed for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. There are no ads so this is a fantastic deal.

Overall, SOTKA is a great fitness app for anyone who is looking to get started on a regimen to improve their muscle tone, overall appearance and health.

It’s simple and straightforward, which makes SOTKA a very viable fitness tool for everyone, not just beginners.

SOTKA: fitness for beginners requires iOS 10.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and Apple Watch.

Source link:https://www.theiphoneappreview.com/2019/09/sotka-iphone-app-review/

The Devil’s Calculator is Diabolical and Fun

September 19, 2019 by RSS Feed

Reviewed by Jimbo

The Devil’s Calculator, developed by Cinq-Mars Media, is a free and challenging math puzzle game for iPhone and iPad.

If you’ve ever used a calculator you’ll see a familiar layout but The Devil’s Calculator is not a traditional calculator. It’s something much more devious, challenging and fun.

Concept and Gameplay:

I’ll admit from the get-go that I’m not a math fanatic. However, I was intrigued by how The Devil’s Calculator was described as “normal arithmetic operators replaced with sadistically obscure functions.”

The Devil’s Calculator is a challenging, fun, and surprisingly addictive game that encourages critical thinking and requires a bit of skill in order to play.

I’m a huge fan of games like that and The Devil’s Calculator definitely didn’t disappoint.

The goal of The Devil’s Calculator is to discover the operation that’s represented by the diamond symbol and us it however you need to in order to create the answer “666.”

It’s definitely tough to explain, and even tougher to get the hang of the game when you first start playing.

However, with a bit of work and persistence, The Devil’s Calculator becomes more fun whilst remaining a good challenge that keeps you thinking.

One thing to watch out for are numbers on fire, though, because these numbers, while they may be the obvious route to an answer, cannot be used and so you’re forced to find another, more difficult, path.

For anyone who’s any bit of a numberphile, there are also DLC levels that are created by noted math-related personalities such as mathematicians, authors, and educators.

You can move along level by level or jump to the level you prefer.

Features:

The Devil’s Calculator iPhone Game

The Devil’s Calculator might seem like a bare-bones game at first, but its appeal lies in its design, not flashy screens or action. That’s not to say there isn’t any action. There is but it’s mostly in your gray matter, and to get it crankin’ it offers the first 20+ levels of play for free.

While playing you can select tools to get a description of the challenge and the options available, open up a linked calculator, go to a specific level, and get some help.

As a clue to the deviousness of this game, it states that “functions are not necessarily algebraic in nature, sometimes their transformations are more abstract, be on the lookout for all types of patterns.”

The game is also hooked into Wolfram and their cloud API. If you touch the “screen” of the game’s calculator you are sent to mathworld.wolfram.com for additional resources.

Don’t be intimidated though, the game starts off pretty simply and lets you move along easily so you can keep going and likely getting farther along that you might have thought possible.

Value:

The Devil’s Calculator is available to download from the App Store for free and is universally compatible with iPhone and iPad. The full version of the game is available for $2.99.

Fortunately the free version has no ads during play although there is an occasional full screen ad which is not a problem.

One point worth noting is that the app was developed by a non-profit 501c organization and so we encourage players to pay for the full version and support this effort. For the price of a cup of coffee you get a well-designed and challenging puzzle game that will keep you focused and on your toes.

The Devil’s Calculator requires iOS 9.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

TheiPhoneAppReview’s rating:

Source link:https://www.theiphoneappreview.com/2019/09/the-devils-calculator-iphone-game-review/

Learning Games 4 Kids Toddlers is a Must-Have For Your Little Ones

August 22, 2019 by RSS Feed

Reviewed by Jimbo

Learning Games 4 Kids Toddlers is a fun and engaging app that provides a playful learning environment for preschoolers.

This well-designed app is sure to delight its target audience of 2-5 year olds as it develops their critical thinking and creative skills.

Features:

As indicated by its name, Learning Games 4 Kids Toddlers, an app by WOOOW! Inc., features various games to play and puzzles for toddlers to solve, all while entertaining them and building their problem solving skills.

The app’s 17 learning games provide a wide variety of activities targeting 10 educational concepts and teaching children such things as matching, sorting logic and more.

When you start the app you see a “play” arrow, touch that and you’ll get to a panel of 20 options for activities. Eight of them are in level 1 and are free. The other 12 cover 4 additional levels and are available for purchase; $1.99/level (3 games each) or $4.99 for all.

Some of the icons, like the one for Kids Academy, will direct you to download a separate app. Others, like Cake for Mommy, will take you right into the activity.

Available in 15 languages, this has wide appeal and may also be used as a way to keep your child in touch with a foreign language you may be exposing them to.

Each screen includes a back arrow in the upper left corner that must be touched twice to go back. This is nice since it avoids accidentally going back.

Selecting to buy a level shows an arithmetic problem so supposedly only parents can get to the purchase page. However, the problem is pretty simple and you select from 3 answers so a guess could do it too.

Appearance and Layout:

Learning 4 Kids Toddlers iPhone App

The graphics of this app are certainly age appropriate. Although incredibly simple, this simplicity helps keep the focus of the app on its intended challenges (such as shape identification).

Navigation through the app is equally simple, definitely easy enough for a young child to figure out how to play the game on his own with minimal assistance.

The in-app cartoon characters are all friendly; there’s definitely no mistaking that friendly raccoon for a ferocious beast.

As a whole, the appearance and layout of Learning Games 4 Kids Toddlers perfectly aligns with its intended purpose.

Value:

Learning Games 4 Kids Toddlers is an app that is free to download. The first level is also free to play, which is really great for any parents who are wanting to see how interested their child is in the app.

Levels 2 through 5 can be purchased for a single in-app purchase of $4.99. This fee is a bit higher than ideal for a children’s game, but the the value of the game compared to other games of its type is quite good.

Overall, Learning Games 4 Kids Toddlers is a collection of fun games and activities that will delight your preschooler while also building critical thinking skills.

We especially appreciate the fact that the first level is free letting you try out this fantastic app so you can see for yourself how well produced it is.

Learning Games 4 Kids Toddlers requires iOS 7.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

TheiPhoneAppReview’s rating:

Source link:https://www.theiphoneappreview.com/2019/08/learning-games-4-kids-toddlers-iphone-app-review/

Use Your AirPods for a Private TV Listening Experience

August 12, 2019 by RSS Feed

Turn AirPods Into TV Earphones

There are many reasons why listening to your TV through your AirPods (or any bluetooth earphones or headsets) is something that’s worth doing. Is your mate asleep in the same room? Is you baby finally asleep and you’d rather chew off your foot than wake your baby up? Do you have trouble hearing whispered dialog right after a series of eardrum piercing explosions?

It’s also useful if, like most folks we know, you get up and move around whilst watching a program, whether it be to grab the next cold one or relieve yourself from the previous one. With bluetooth earphones connected to your TV you can pretty much move all around your apartment or house and never miss a word.

Whether you generally like your volume different than what someone else might prefer or simply would like the uttered words to be clearer, this can help a lot. Also, with some videos having an unnatural auditory dynamic range, from stealth whispers to dramatic explosions, it gives you more autonomy to control your preferred volume at a moments notice.

In addition, by using AirPods, instead of over-the-ear headsets or in-ear earplugs, you can still hear what’s going on around you so anyone making comments or trying to let you know to stop bogarting that joint you can hear more than just the TV.

So, the challenge is to not only divert the audio signal feeding, or from, your TV but to do it in a way that lets others sill use the usual audio output, be it built-in speakers, a soundbar, or whatever you are currently using.

Plus, you want to be able to adjust your volume remotely so your lazy ass can stay on the couch. As it turns out, this is the bigger challenge.

While our investigation did not turn up any boxed all-in-one solution to this quandary, all of this is easy to accomplish is you put the right pieces together.

The parts you’ll need:

A signal splitter – if you don’t have an unused audio output connector you’ll have to split one that you’re already using. You may or may not need this item.

A volume controller with remote – this device will feed an adjusted volume signal to your BT so it comes after the splitter and before the BT.

The way your AirPods work is that their volume is controlled by the app you are using to play audio – music, movies, podcasts, whatever. Typically this is done via the which then uses the iPhone/iPad’s volume function. Since you’re not using an app this volume control function needs to be added.

This can be the trickiest part of the whole package. Many BTs want an optical audio input and only have one output level that’s not adjustable.

A Bluetooth transmitter – a Bluetooth transmitter (or BT) will take an audio input and transmit the signal over bluetooth. Some things to look for are the version of Bluetooth (the later the better, v5.0 as of this writing).

As the versions of Bluetooth have advanced they’ve become more efficient, provide more solid connections, and use less power. It can be twice as fast as the previous version.

V5.0 also supports aptX, which is a low latency feature but this only matters if your receiving device also support it. Unfortunately Apple AirPods (1st & 2nd Gen) do not.

Note that some BTs also provide a passthrough for the audio signal. If it does it also does the work of a splitter so you don’t need a separate one.

Our solution:

Andul Digital Premium Quality Optical Audio Splitter SPDIF/Toslink 1 in to 3 Out Powered Amplifier (One Input 3 Outputs), Black – Our TV has one optical output and we needed an optical input for the BT and our Sonos soundbar requires an HDMI input.

For newer TVs you may have all the audio outputs you need so this is only needed if you need an additional line.

We opted to use this splitter with an optical to HDMI converter plug.

Optical to RCA, Digital to Analog Audio Converter, Optical to Analog Converter with Remote, DAC Converter Support 192KHz/24bit with IR Remote Control, Optical Cable and Power Adapter (Silver) – This is the key to making the volume of your AirPods adjustable while watching TV. It works great, although we would like smaller increments going up and down

Note that while the input is optical audio, the two possible outputs are RCA audio (left, right channels) or 3.5mm aux (headphones). We used the 3.5mm since the Visoud’s input options are optical and 3.5mm aux.

Visoud Long Range Bluetooth 5.0 Transmitter and Receiver aptX HD, aptX Low Latency & Dual Link Supported Wireless Audio Adapter Transmitter for TV Home Stereo PC by Optical RCA AUX 3.5mm – After some trial and error, we settled on this one. There are quite a few options out there and many look like the same device with a different name on it.

Some things to consider are: do you need to connect 1 or 2 bluetooth devices?, how far will you be from the transmitter?, do you need battery power for times when you’re away from AC power? Is auto-reconnection to your AirPods important?

We definitely wanted auto-reconnect so our lazy asses wouldn’t have to get off the couch any more than necessary. There seems to be quite a bit of variance around how well the devices do this although the Visoud does it about as well as any of them.

One note about this, in our experience while it will reconnect to the AirPods automatically, it doesn’t alway do it so it sometimes requires manually hitting a button on the transmitter to make the connection.

Also, sometimes it connected (and continually reconnected) when we were trying to use the AirPods with a different source forcing us to turn off the transmitter. Annoying, yes. If you’ve found a transmitter that always gets this right please let us know.

And there you have it. Providing you already have the AirPods, in our view this is a far superior way to listen to the TV either with or without others who prefer the existing sound.

Source link:https://www.theiphoneappreview.com/2019/08/use-your-airpods-for-a-private-tv-listening-experience/